2) Ouihan (Tock)

Ouihan was tinkering with his spring semester final project in his second year at Halinar's HLS. His path to the most prestigious HLS was by no means the normal route.

​First, Ouihan wasn't nobility or gentry of any kind. He wasn't even yeoman class. He was in reality a street orphan. No one knew who his parents were, least of all Ouihan. Many holes existed in Ouihan's memory. His first memories were when he was five wandering the street. He remembered being taken in by a street tinker who had a cart. The kindly old man fed and sheltered Ouihan in return for help with his many gadget repairs he had performed for pennies apiece.

​About four years ago, Ouihan found the old tinker had died in the night. He tried to run the cart by himself, but an enforcer saw him and arrested him. He tried to explain his plight and demonstrate he could carry on the old man's work, but the enforcer would have none of it, especially since Empress Victoria II had put out an edictto clean up the streets of riffraff.

​The judge took pity on Ouihan and ordered the tinker cart be sold and the proceeds, minus court costs were to pay for Ouihan to go to the State School for Delinquents.

​The School Master noticed right away Ouihan wasn't a normal boy. He could read and write Common and Sayer's Script fluently. He even had a working knowledge in all four of the runic languages. When he was asked who taught him, he didn't know. He just knew these things as far back as he could remember. The other thing which was unusual about Ouihan was the fact he could pick up any gadget and understand it or fix it without much difficulty.

​After his two years of State School, he was considered ready to graduate with enough education to either be sold as an apprentice to a craftsman or to a factory as a worker. However, in his case, some anonymous benefactor sponsored Ouihan's appointment to Halinar's.

​In the two years since, Ouihan seemed to be excelling at everything which was put in front of him. He never found out who his mysterious benefactor was, so he resigned himself to letting it be one of the many mysteries in his life. Since he was considered a ward of the state, he had to stay in school even during summer break when all of his classmates returned to their families. Even worse, he was only 12 so he wouldn't be allowed to be on his own for at least six more years.

​Conceivably he could petition the courts for emancipation when he turned 16, however, it was unlikely since he was a street orphan not gentry or better who had means to provide for himself.

​Meanwhile he tinkered with his final project for spring semester. Even though he already received his A+ grade for the project, he wasn't satisfied. Early on he found out when performing an assigned project to the best of his abilities he would receive a failing grade for failing to follow direction, so he finished every project he had within the guidelines given him. Afterwards he would then perfect the projects to his own ideal and add them to his covey.

​“Gidget please bring me a number four Spanner's wrench.”

​The strange looking octagonal box sitting on the floor next to him sprung to life and sprouted legs from six of the eight side panels. It then skittered across the floor toward a tool chest on the far wall. Out of the top of the octagonal box a claw on a telescopic arm reached up into the chest, grabbed a wrench then skittered back over to Ouihan and gave the wrench to him.

​“Thanks, Gidge.” He said distractedly as he used the wrench to make a final adjustment.

​Gidget was something Ouihan made in his spare time with discarded and sometimes damaged gears and sprockets which laid around the workshop. Since he knew the shop master would not be pleased with his use of materials, he restricted his side projects to discards. Gidget was his most successful. He also had to keep Gidget a secret because the shop master and the professors frowned on unauthorized and unsupervised projects. Fortunately, since Gidget was only about the size of his hand, she was easy to hide. This was imperative to him. Gidget was his only real friend. Ouihan didn't really fit in with any of his classmates, because of his poor background.

​Ouihan made his final adjustments to his project, a simple clock, then he set the time and started the pendulum swinging, he had created a perpetual motion clock. “Now you won't need counterweights to run.” He was talking to himself as he usually did when he worked.

​The janitor, old man Farley, pushed his cart into the workshop to do his evening cleanup. He looked at Ouihan and said, “Young Master Ouihan, you are still at work as usual? Why don't you go and play Cricket or something with the other boys?”

​Ouihan shook his head and said, “You know what happened the last time I tried to play with the others. Besides Mr. Farley, I like doing this.” he surreptitiously scooped up Gidget and put her into his school bag while he put the rest of his tool kit up. He then returned the borrowed tools to the main tool chest and rearranged the rest of the tools in the chest according to the way the shop master demanded they be. None of the other boys were so conscientious and most often just threw the tools back in haphazardly. Since the shop master didn't discipline the other, more entitled boys, Ouihan usually ended up with the demerits at the end of the day whether he was the last to leave or not. This is why he decided early on to always be the last to leave so he could make sure the chest was up to snuff.

​“Can I help you with the shop Mr. Farley.”

​“No, no Master Ouihan I've got it. You run along now. Remember to stay away from Master Featherly. I think he still smarts from the last time he tried to put you in your place.”

​“Yes sir, I will, if he stays away from me.”

​

​As Ouihan left Mr. Farley shook his head. Ouihan was the only one who called him sir or even by his name. Mostly the boys here would just say to him, “Hey janitor. Clean this up.” or some such. He had high hopes for Ouihan.